Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

I read that as no longer dealer maintained, not no longer maintained. There is a difference.
 
Eye-Q said:
That's the critical thing there - "a couple years" is too long, every other car would suffer from neglected service as well.

I have a 13 year old car with about the same mileage and it's fine. Of course it has been serviced and consumables and some other bits and bobs have been changed, but that's the way things goes when a myriad of parts are playing together. Even a Rolls Royce wouldn't be faultless at this point if you neglect service "a couple years"...
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You're in Europe, where the same car magically lasts much longer than in the USA.
 
Redliner said:
You're in Europe, where the same car magically lasts much longer than in the USA.
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It's no mystery. The Europeans are going "well what do you expect from 2 years without service" and the Americans are going "wow it was maintained until recently and now look."

An American "service" is an oil change. Most people do that at least slightly on schedule. Everything else gets fixed when it breaks. Or never.
 
gaasc said:
1 and 3. VW's have varying levels of disintegration over here so no horrible POS tagging from here.
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1: Owner stated they liked the GTI front end and lights better and found a GTI that had a bad engine being parted out.
3: My mechanic friend needed help getting it to his work (it's currently barely driveable) so he can work on it as a side job. I helped him out because he owes me money and this will help him pay me back. Also, for the lols.

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Eye-Q said:
That's the critical thing there - "a couple years" is too long, every other car would suffer from neglected service as well.
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See GRTak's reply, quoted below.

GRtak said:
I read that as no longer dealer maintained, not no longer maintained. There is a difference.
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Exactly so. This is a car that was allegedly serviced 100% by the dealership until 80K and has since been serviced by independent garages according to the service indicator and factory schedule. It has not been left to rot, but it's had what it's supposed to have. The car is still disintegrating badly anyway.

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thevictor390 said:
It's no mystery. The Europeans are going "well what do you expect from 2 years without service" and the Americans are going "wow it was maintained until recently and now look."

An American "service" is an oil change. Most people do that at least slightly on schedule. Everything else gets fixed when it breaks. Or never.
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Nope, it was *dealer* maintained until recently, but it's been serviced by independent mechanics since the extended maintenance agreement ran out.

According to the VW service schedule, it should have had an oil change and brake inspection at 85K, at 90K it should have had another oil change, another brake inspection, a wheel rotation and an inspection of the engine, airbag system and shift lock. At 95K it should have had another oil change and brake inspection. So according to VW NA themselves, the Rabbit didn't require much more than said oil changes.

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For that matter, how is the owner supposed to 'maintain' such things as the headliner, other than not getting them dirty? :p



Yup, that's a droopy backlit headliner. :p The car actually did have a full washer reservoir and did not have any bulbs out or LED-swapped, despite what the error icons showed.
 
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Diesel was 6 cents cheaper than gasoline today. I can't remember the last time that happened.
 
Sagging headliner might have something to do with the climate you have there, it's not exactly glue-friendly and I bet every third car in Texas which is over a certain age has sagging headliner, regardless of where they come from. I've seen extremely few cars with sagging headliner in Germany.


Since I don't think your point of view will change with reasonable arguments I won't try further...
 
Eye-Q said:
Sagging headliner might have something to do with the climate you have there, it's not exactly glue-friendly and I bet every third car in Texas which is over a certain age has sagging headliner, regardless of where they come from. I've seen extremely few cars with sagging headliner in Germany.


Since I don't think your point of view will change with reasonable arguments I won't try further...
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My truck's 20 years old this year and it's still on the original headliner. It's spent its entire life in Texas, most of it next to the Gulf of Mexico. :evil:

But yes, headliners sagging is a function of heat plus humidity, but these days it's mostly import marques that have this problem - Euro import marques. After the early 90s, it started becoming a vanishing problem for Big Three cars and most of the Asian marques - so much so that the vehicle upholstery shops that used to be so plentiful because of this problem are now endangered species, like radiator repair shops though not quite as bad. In Dallas alone, there were over 50 such shops when I moved here in 1995. Now it's down to something like 5 in the entire county. I'm not looking forward to having to redo the headliner in the Ford (I'll have to, to add the overhead console I have in mind) because the glue they've used since the late 90s is damn hard to get the fabric to release from.

That said, thank you for admitting that conditions are very different in North America than in Germany, and that a car that holds up well there can be hugely adversely affected here through no fault of the owner's. :mrgreen:

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cmb1981 said:
Diesel was 6 cents cheaper than gasoline today. I can't remember the last time that happened.
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I saw that once earlier this year for all of a day and then again today. The last time I saw diesel cheaper than gasoline in the US prior to that was... hm, early 2001?

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public said:
Headliner sag is a Saab thing. Maybe it wants to be a Saab.
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I remember that annoying thing about my parents' 9000 Turbo quite well. Since they fall like rain in the US and apparently they're pretty bad in chipping-ice-out-of-my-underwear-for-nine-months-land as well, is there any climate that won't cause a Saab headliner to debond and fall?
 
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The headliner has a foam inside, for NVH reasons. I don't know if they went with bad foam or bad glue, but it crumbles and the fabric separates from the foam. The only fix is to remove the headliner, remove the fabric, scrub away all old glue and foam remnants and replace the fabric on the headliner board. The structure is fiberglass or something like that, so it doesn't itself sag like the one on Adrian's 850 or D-Fence's 735, it's just the soft fabric that droops. The only thing is that on 4-door or 2-door cars it's pretty difficult to get the headliner board out, but on 3-door or 5-door ones you obviously have an easier way out.
 
public said:
The headliner has a foam inside, for NVH reasons. I don't know if they went with bad foam or bad glue, but it crumbles and the fabric separates from the foam. The only fix is to remove the headliner, remove the fabric, scrub away all old glue and foam remnants and replace the fabric on the headliner board. The structure is fiberglass or something like that, so it doesn't itself sag like the one on Adrian's 850 or D-Fence's 735, it's just the soft fabric that droops. The only thing is that on 4-door or 2-door cars it's pretty difficult to get the headliner board out, but on 3-door or 5-door ones you obviously have an easier way out.
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On the S3 Jag, you're better off just removing one of the windscreens to get it out. Mine was last done about 10 years ago, it's time to do it again. This time I'm going to redo the backing board in fiberglass. Was way easier on my old Grand Wagoneer.

That said, those were both 80s cars. :p Still amused that the Saab headliners fail here *and* there when their European competition (per Eye-Q) mostly fails just over here. I have not fond memories of the disintegrating Saab 9000 headliner shedding foam bits everywhere.
 
The headlining in my Saab had just been replaced by the previous owner when I bought it. Six months later when I sold it, it was visibly starting to sag at the back :lol:
 
PelicanHazard said:
Hey, rick, time to start saving for a vacation to the north: the Renault Twizy is headed to Canada.
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Interesting. Since Renault themselves are not returning, they're getting this third party company to do the homologation and distribution. I personally could care less about this car, but it'll be interesting to see what happens.
 
PelicanHazard said:
Hey, rick, time to start saving for a vacation to the north: the Renault Twizy is headed to Canada.
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If they brought something that wasn't the Twizy over i'd be all over that haha. I dunno why but the Twizy, although neat looking, does nothing for me.

JimCorrigan said:
Interesting. Since Renault themselves are not returning, they're getting this third party company to do the homologation and distribution. I personally could care less about this car, but it'll be interesting to see what happens.
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Pretty much this.
 
I just had the 2nd most frustating automotive experience of my life: cutting through about 15 miles of some beautiful, hilly, curvey, tree-lined, lush-with-greenery Oregon roads...

...in a Chevy Sonic sedan.

The road noise was so loud, i couldnt use the car's Bluetooth phone functions (and my phone's speakerphone didn't work well, either), every time i lifted off the accelerator, it felt like it had become disconnected from the throttle when i attempted to re-apply it. The seats were slippery, and the armrest (attached to the side of the seat) actually lined up better with my armpit than my elbows (set to close to my body, i could t bring my elbow in close enough to use it. I ended up moving the passenger seat all the way forward, and resting my hand in the seat's back pocket, like I'm 16, and it's my girlfriend's back jeans pocket.

So far this month, i've driven (only counting more than 50 miles) my 2015 Mazda 3, my gf's eGolf, a base model Focus sedan, a base Nissan Versa Note, base Hyundai Accent, base Veloster and base Elantra sedan, base Kia Forte and base Optima, and this LTZ "turbo" Chevy Sonic. The sonic has been the worst by a mile.

I've nearly cut myself on two different interior edges, it takes foooorrreeevvveeerrr to sync with my phone, and the sun visors are useless in the sides.
 
This was the worst car, but the worst driving experience was a few years ago when I rented a Mustang for my birthday to drive up the coast. On the way back, we were stuck behind a Suburban that would NOT pull over to let anyone pass. Mile after mile after mile of ocean-side, single lane, curvy roads, and that lumbering huge SUV just rocked back and forth and back and forth at each turn.

Just seconds before we were about to pull off and just sight-see for a while to let him get way out ahead of us, we noticed a window rolling down, a small child's head peeked out the window, turned back to look at us, and then vomited down the side of the truck door.

The Suburban never even slowed down.

We then proceeded immediately with our plan to pull off the highway, and just let him go.
 
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